Home > Sira > The fifth year of the prophetic Hijra
Year 5 of the Hijra: Dumat al-Jandal, the campaign of the Trench, the miracles of Jabir’s table, the rock of Salman, and the marriages of Umm Habiba and Zaynab.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
Al-Waqidi said: in this year, meaning the year four, the Messenger of Allah ordered Zayd ibn Thabit to learn the writing of the Jews, and it is established of him in the Sahih that he said: I learned it in fifteen days; and Allah knows best. Then the fifth year of the prophetic Hijra, and the campaign of Dumat al-Jandal in Rabi’ al-Awwal of it. Ibn Ishaq said: then the Messenger of Allah made war upon Dumat al-Jandal, and Ibn Hisham said: in Rabi’ al-Awwal, meaning of the year five, and he appointed over Medina Siba’ ibn Urfuta al-Ghifari. Ibn Ishaq said: then he returned to Medina before it reached him, meeting no ruse, and stayed in Medina the rest of his year: thus Ibn Ishaq said. Al-Waqidi said, by his chain, from his elders, from a group of the ancients who said: the Messenger of Allah wished to draw near to the nearer parts of Syria, and it was said to him: that is of what frightens Caesar; and it was mentioned to him that at Dumat al-Jandal was a great gathering oppressing whoever passed by them, and there was there a great market, and they intended to draw near to Medina. So the Messenger of Allah urged the people, and they went out a thousand Muslims, marching by night and hiding by day, with a guide of the Banu Udhré called Mudhkur, an expert guide.
When he drew near Dumat al-Jandal his guide told him of the herds of the Banu Tamim, and he marched until he fell upon their livestock and their herdsmen, taking whom he took while whom would flee fled in every direction. The news came to the people of Dumat al-Jandal and they scattered, and the Messenger of Allah camped upon their square, finding no one there, and stayed there days and sent out expeditions; then they returned, and Muhammad ibn Maslama took a man of them and brought him to the Messenger of Allah, who questioned him of his companions. He said: they fled yesterday. The Messenger of Allah offered him Islam and he accepted Islam, and the Messenger of Allah returned to Medina. Al-Waqidi said: his going out to Dumat al-Jandal was in Rabi’ al-Awwal of the year five; and he said: in it died Umm Sa’d bint Ubada, her son being with the Messenger of Allah in this campaign. Abu Isa at-Tirmidhi said in his Jami’: Muhammad ibn Bashshar narrated to us: Yahya ibn Sa’id narrated to us, from Sa’id ibn Abi Aruba, from Qatada, from Sa’id ibn al-Musayyab, that Umm Sa’d died while the Prophet was absent, and when he came he prayed over her after a month had passed for that; and this is a fair mursal, and it requires that he was absent in this campaign a month or more, as al-Waqidi mentions.
Allah the Most High sent down in it the beginning of the chapter of the Confederates: O you who believe, remember the favor of Allah upon you when hosts came to you and We sent against them a wind and hosts you saw not [al-Ahzab: 9], and the verses to His word: and He made you inherit their land and their homes and their wealth and a land you had not trodden [al-Ahzab: 27]; we have discussed it in the Tafsir, and mention here what touches the story. The campaign of the Trench was in Shawwal of the year five of the Hijra, as stated explicitly by Ibn Ishaq, Urwa ibn az-Zubayr, Qatada, al-Bayhaqi and more than one of the scholars, ancients and later. Musa ibn Uqba reported from az-Zuhri that he said: then was the encounter of the Confederates in Shawwal of the year four; and so said the Imam Malik ibn Anas, as Ahmad ibn Hanbal reported from Musa ibn Dawud,
from him. Al-Bayhaqi said: there is no disagreement between them in reality, for their meaning is that it was after four years had passed and before five was completed; and no doubt the polytheists, when they departed from Uhud, promised the Muslims Badr the coming year, and the Prophet and his companions went as preceded in Sha’ban of the year four, and Abu Sufyan returned with Quraysh for the sterility of that year, so they could not come to Medina but two months after; it follows that the Trench was in Shawwal of the year five, and Allah knows best. Az-Zuhri stated explicitly that the Trench was after Uhud by two years, and there is no dispute that Uhud was in Shawwal of the year three, except upon the view of those who held the beginning of the calendar was Muharram of the year following the year of the Hijra,
not counting the remaining months of the year of the Hijra from Rabi’ al-Awwal to its end, as al-Bayhaqi relates, and Ya’qub ibn Sufyan al-Fasawi held likewise, stating explicitly that Badr was in al-Muharram, Uhud in the year two, Badr al-Maw’ud in Sha’ban of the year three, and the Trench in Shawwal of the year four. This contradicts the view of the majority, for the famous account is that the Commander of the Believers Umar ibn al-Khattab made the beginning of the calendar Muharram of the year of the Hijra, and from Malik, Rabi’ al-Awwal of the year of the Hijra; so the views became three, and Allah knows best. The sound view is that of the majority: that Uhud was in Shawwal of the year three and the Trench in Shawwal of the year five of the Hijra; and Allah knows best. As for the agreed hadith in the two Sahihs, through Ubaydallah, from Nafi’, from Ibn Umar,
that he said: I was presented to the Messenger of Allah on the day of Uhud while I was fourteen years old and he did not permit me, and I was presented on the day of the Trench while I was fifteen and he permitted me: a group of the scholars answered it, among them al-Bayhaqi, that he was presented on the day of Uhud at the beginning of his fourteenth year and on the day of the Confederates at the end of his fifteenth. I say: it is possible he meant that when he was presented on the day of the Confederates he had completed fifteen years, which are permitted for boys like him, and nothing remains upon this to add; and for that, when Nafi’ related this hadith to Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, he said: this is indeed a difference between the young and the grown; then he wrote with it to the horizons, and the majority of the scholars relied upon it; and Allah knows best.
This is the account of the story as Ibn Ishaq and others mention. Ibn Ishaq said: then was the campaign of the Trench in Shawwal of the year five, and Yazid ibn Ruman related to me, from Urwa, and one whom I do not suspect, from Abdallah ibn Ka’b ibn Malik, and Muhammad ibn Ka’b al-Qurazi, and az-Zuhri, and Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada, and Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr, and others of our scholars, some relating what others do not. They said: of the story of the Trench was that a group of the Jews, among them Sallam ibn Abi l-Haqiq an-Nadiri, Huyayy ibn Akhtab an-Nadiri, Kinana ibn ar-Rabi’ ibn Abi l-Haqiq, Hawdha ibn Qays al-Wa’ili and Abu Ammar al-Wa’ili, in a group of the Banu an-Nadir and a group of the Banu Wa’il: and they are those who confederated the Confederates against the Messenger of Allah: went out until they came to Quraysh in Mecca and called them to the war of the Messenger of Allah, saying: we shall be with you against him until we eradicate him.
Quraysh said to them: O assembly of Jews, you are the people of the Book, the first, and of the knowledge of what we and Muhammad dispute today: is our religion better or his religion? They said: rather your religion is better than his religion and you are more worthy of the truth than he. They are those of whom Allah sent down: have you not seen those given a portion of the Book, believing in idols and false deities and saying of those who disbelieved: these are better guided in the way than those who believe? Those are they whom Allah has cursed [an-Nisa: 51-52], the verses. When they said that to Quraysh it pleased them and they were stirred for what they were called to of the war of the Messenger of Allah, and gathered for that and prepared; then that group of the Jews went out until they came to Ghatafan of Qays Aylan and called them to the war of the Prophet, informing them they would be with them against him,
and that Quraysh had followed them in that and gathered with them in it. Quraysh went out, their leader being Abu Sufyan, and Ghatafan went out, their leader being Uyayna ibn Hisn ibn Hudhayfa ibn Badr among the Banu Fazaré, and al-Harith ibn Awf ibn Abi Haritha al-Murri among the Banu Murra, and Mus’ar ibn Rakhila ibn Nuwayra ibn Tarif ibn Suhma ibn Abdallah ibn Hilal ibn Khulawah ibn Ashja’ ibn Rayth ibn Ghatafan among whoever of his people of Ashja’ followed him. When the Messenger of Allah heard of them and of what they had combined against him he dug the Trench around Medina. Ibn Hisham said: it is said the one who suggested it was Salman. At-Tabari and as-Suhayli said: the first to dig trenches was Minouchehr ibn Iraj ibn Faridoun, and he was in the time of Moses, peace be upon him. Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah worked in it inciting the Muslims to reward, and the Muslims worked in it,
while a group of the hypocrites held back excusing themselves with weakness, and of them was one who slipped away secretly without his permission or knowledge, peace be upon him. Allah the Most High sent down thereupon His word: the believers are only those who believed in Allah and His Messenger and, when they were with him upon a collective affair, went not until they asked his leave [an-Nour: 62-64]. Ibn Ishaq said: the Muslims worked in it until they made it firm, and they declaimed in it a man of the Muslims called Ju’ayl, whom the Messenger of Allah named Amr, and they said in their saying: he named him, after Ju’ayl, Amr, and he was for the wretched one day a back; and when they said Amr the Messenger of Allah said with them: Amr; and when they said: a back, he said to them: a back. Al-Bukhari said: Abdallah ibn Muhammad narrated to us: Mu’awiya ibn Amr narrated to us: Abu Ishaq narrated to us, from Humayd: I heard Anas say:
the Messenger of Allah went out to the Trench and the Muhajirun and the Ansar were digging on a cold morning, and they had no slaves to do that for them. When he saw what they had of toil and hunger he said: ’O Allah, indeed life is the life of the Hereafter, so forgive the Ansar and the Muhajirun.’ They answered him: we are those who pledged Muhammad allegiance upon jihad as long as we remain. In the two Sahihs, from Shu’ba, from Mu’awiya ibn Qurra, from Anas, the like; and Muslim reported it from the hadith of Hammad ibn Salama, from Thabit and Humayd, from Anas, likewise. Al-Bukhari said: Abu Ma’mar narrated to us: Abd al-Warith narrated to us, from Abd al-Aziz, from Anas, who said: the Muhajirun and the Ansar began digging the Trench around Medina, carrying the earth upon their backs, saying: we are those who pledged Muhammad allegiance upon jihad as long as we remain; and the Prophet, answering them, said: O Allah, there is no good but the good of the Hereafter,
so bless the Ansar and the Muhajirun. He said: they were brought a handful of barley, and made for them a coarse porridge placed before the people, the people hungry, and it was vile in the throat and had a fetid smell. Al-Bukhari said: Qutayba ibn Said narrated to us: Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi Hazim narrated to us, from Sahl ibn Sa’d, who said: we were with the Messenger of Allah at the Trench while they dug and we carried the earth upon our spines, and the Messenger of Allah said: O Allah, no life but the life of the Hereafter, so forgive the Muhajirun and the Ansar; and Muslim reported it from al-Qa’nabi, from Abd al-Aziz, likewise. Al-Bukhari said: Muslim ibn Ibrahim narrated to us: Shu’ba narrated to us, from Abu Ishaq, from al-Bara ibn Azib, who said: the Messenger of Allah carried the earth on the day of the Trench until his belly was covered, or his belly was dusted, saying: ’By Allah, were it not for Allah we would not be guided,
nor have given charity nor prayed; so send down tranquility upon us and steady the feet if we meet; indeed the insolent have rebelled against us; if they desire trial we refuse.’ And he raised his voice with it: we refuse, we refuse; and Muslim reported it from the hadith of Shu’ba, likewise. Then al-Bukhari said: Ahmad ibn Uthman narrated to us: Shurayh ibn Maslama narrated to us: Ibrahim ibn Yusuf related to me: my father related to me, from Abu Ishaq, from al-Bara, relating: on the day of the Confederates the Messenger of Allah dug the Trench and I saw him carrying from the earth of the Trench until the earth covered the skin of his belly, and he was copious in verse, and I heard him declaiming the words of Abdallah ibn Rawaha while carrying from the earth, saying: ’O Allah, were it not for You we would not be guided, nor have given charity nor prayed; so send down tranquility upon us and steady the feet if we meet; indeed the insolent have rebelled against us,
and if they desire trial we refuse.’ Then he would extend his voice with its end. Al-Bayhaqi said in ad-Dala’il: Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abdan informed us: Ahmad ibn Ubayd as-Saffar informed us: Isma’il ibn al-Fadl al-Balkhi narrated to us: Ibrahim ibn Yusuf al-Balkhi narrated to us: al-Musayyab ibn Sharik narrated to us, from Ziyad ibn Abi Ziyad, from Abu Uthman, from Salman, that the Messenger of Allah struck in the Trench and said: ’In the name of Allah and by Him we are guided, and had we worshipped other than Him we would have gone astray; O what a good Lord and good religion’: and this hadith is strange by this route. The Imam Ahmad said: Sulayman narrated to us: Shu’ba narrated to us, from Mu’awiya ibn Qurra, from Anas, that the Messenger of Allah said while they dug the Trench: ’O Allah, no good but the good of the Hereafter, so set right the Ansar and the Muhajirun’; and the two reported it in the two Sahihs from Ghundar, from Shu’ba.
Ibn Ishaq said: there were in the digging of the Trench hadiths that reached me containing, from Allah the Most High, a lesson in confirming the Messenger of Allah and establishing his prophethood, and the Muslims beheld that; of it is that Jabir ibn Abdallah used to relate that a hard mound caused them great fatigue in part of the Trench, and they complained of it to the Messenger of Allah, who called for a vessel of water, spat into it, then invoked with what Allah willed him to invoke, then sprinkled the water upon that mound; and whoever was present said: by Him who sent him with the truth it collapsed until it became like a sand dune that no pick nor broom resists: thus Ibn Ishaq mentions it, with a broken chain, from Jabir ibn Abdallah. Al-Bukhari said: Khallad ibn Yahya narrated to us: Abd al-Wahid ibn Aymen narrated to us, from his father, who said: I came to Jabir and he said: on the day of the Trench we were digging when a severe difficulty presented itself, and they came to the Prophet and said: this is a mound that has presented itself in the Trench. He said: ’I shall descend.’ Then he rose,
his belly bound with a stone, and we stayed three days tasting nothing. The Prophet took the pick and struck, and it became a luminous dune, and I said: O Messenger of Allah, permit me to go to the house. I said to my wife: I have seen of the Prophet something no patience could bear; do you have anything? She said: I have barley and a she-camel. She slaughtered the she-camel and ground the barley until we had put the meat in the pot; then I came to the Prophet, the dough having collapsed and the pot on the trivets about to cook, and said: a morsel for me; rise, O Messenger of Allah, and a man or two. He said: ’how much is it?’ I mentioned it to him and he said: ’plentiful and good; tell her not to remove the pot nor the bread from the oven until I come.’ Then he said: ’rise’, and the Muhajirun and the Ansar rose, and when he entered upon his wife he said: woe to you, the Prophet has come with the Muhajirun and the Ansar and whoever is with them. She said: did he ask you? I said: yes. He said: ’enter, and do not crush one another’; and he began breaking the bread and placing the meat upon it,
moistening the pot and the oven as he took from them, and bringing near to his companions, then withdrawing, and he kept breaking the bread and ladling until they were full and a remainder remained; and he said: ’eat and give to feed, for the people have been stricken with hunger’: al-Bukhari alone reports it. The Imam Ahmad reported it, from Waki’, from Abd al-Wahid ibn Aymen, from his father Aymen al-Habashi, freedman of the Banu Makhzum, from Jabir, with the story of the mound and the stone bound upon his noble belly. Al-Bayhaqi reported it in ad-Dala’il, from al-Hakim, from al-Asamm, from Ahmad ibn Abd al-Jabbar, from Yunus ibn Bukayr, from Abd al-Wahid ibn Aymen, from his father, from Jabir, with the story of the mound and the food, its length being more complete than the version of al-Bukhari; he said in it: when the Prophet knew the measure of the food he said to the Muslims all together: rise to Jabir; and they rose. He said: I met with shame what none but Allah knows, and said: he has brought the creatures upon a sa’ of barley and a she-camel!
And I entered upon my wife saying: you have been exposed; the Messenger of Allah has come to you with the Trench all together. She said: did he ask you how much your food was? I said: yes. She said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He said: she lifted from me a great distress. The Messenger of Allah entered and said: take, and leave me of the meat; and the Messenger of Allah began rolling and ladling the meat, then moistening this and moistening that, bringing near to the people until they were all full and the oven and the pot returned as full as they were; then the Messenger of Allah said: ’eat and give to feed’, and she kept eating and feeding all our day. Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba reported it likewise, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Muharibi, from Abd al-Wahid ibn Aymen, from his father, from Jabir, likewise, and more ample also, saying at its end: he informed me they were eight hundred, or he said three hundred. Yunus ibn Bukayr said, from Hisham ibn Sa’d, from Abu az-Zubayr, from Jabir, mentioning the story at length in the food only, and said: they were three hundred.
Then al-Bukhari said: Amr ibn Ali narrated to us: Abu Asim narrated to us: Hanzala ibn Abi Sufyan narrated to us: Sa’id ibn Mina informed me: I heard Jabir ibn Abdallah say: when the Trench was dug I saw of the Prophet a great hunger, and I hurried to my wife and said: do you have anything? For I have seen of the Messenger of Allah a severe hunger. She brought out to me a bag in which was a sa’ of barley, and we had a house beast, and I slaughtered it, and she ground until she finished as I finished, and I cut it in its pot; then I turned to the Messenger of Allah, and she said: disgrace me not before the Messenger of Allah and those with him. I came to him and confided in him and said: O Messenger of Allah, we have slaughtered a beast of ours and ground a sa’ of barley we had; come, you and a group with you. The Messenger of Allah cried with a loud voice: ’O people of the Trench, Jabir has made a dish; come to an invitation’; and the Messenger of Allah said: ’do not take down your pot nor bake your dough until I come’. I came, and the Messenger of Allah came leading the people forward until I came to my wife,
and she said: upon you and upon you. I said: I have done what you said. She brought out for us dough, and he spat in it and blessed, then went to our pot and spat and blessed, then said: ’call your baker woman to bake with you, and ladle from your pot and take it not down’. They were a thousand, and he swore by Allah they ate until they left it and turned away, and our pot was still covering as it was, and our dough baking as it was; and Muslim reported it from Hajjaj ibn ash-Sha’ir, from Abu Asim, in like manner. Ibn Ishaq reported this hadith, and in its account is strangeness from some angles, and he said: Sa’id ibn Mina related to me, from Jabir ibn Abdallah: we worked with the Messenger of Allah on the Trench, and I had a little non-fat sheep. I said: by Allah, were we to cook it for the Messenger of Allah; and I ordered my wife and she ground for us something of barley and made us bread of it, and I slaughtered that sheep and we roasted it for the Messenger of Allah. When we reached evening and the Messenger of Allah wished to depart from the Trench: and we worked in it by day,
and when evening came we returned to our families: I said: O Messenger of Allah, I have cooked for you a sheep and made with it something of bread of this barley, and I would love that you depart with me to my dwelling: and he wanted only that the Messenger of Allah depart with him alone. When I said that he said: yes; then ordered a crier who cried: depart with the Messenger of Allah to the house of Jabir ibn Abdallah. I said: to Allah we belong and to Him we return. The Messenger of Allah came forward and the people came with him, and he sat, and we brought it out to him; he blessed and named Allah the Most High, then ate, and the people came one after another; whenever a people finished they rose and people came, until the people of the Trench had left it. The strangeness is that the Imam Ahmad only reported it through Sa’id ibn Mina, from Ya’qub ibn Ibrahim ibn Sa’d, from his father, from Ibn Ishaq, from him, from Jabir, the like of it likewise. Ibn Ishaq said: Sa’id ibn Mina related to me that it has been related that a daughter of Bashir ibn Sa’d, sister of an-Nu’man ibn Bashir, said:
my mother Amra bint Rawaha called me and gave me a handful of dates in my garment, then said: O daughter, go to your father Bashir ibn Sa’d and your uncle Abdallah ibn Rawaha with their lunch. She said: I took it and went, passing by the Messenger of Allah while I sought my father and uncle, and he said: ’come, O daughter; what is this with you?’ She said: O Messenger of Allah, these are dates my mother sent me to carry to my father Bashir ibn Sa’d and my uncle Abdallah ibn Rawaha to eat for lunch. He said: ’bring them’. She said: I poured them into the two palms of the Messenger of Allah and they did not fill them; then he ordered a cloth which was spread for him, then rolled the dates upon it and they scattered over the cloth; then he said to a man with him: ’call among the people of the Trench: come to lunch’; and the people of the Trench gathered upon it and began eating of it, and it kept increasing until the people of the Trench departed from it, and it fell from the edges of the cloth. Thus Ibn Ishaq reported it, and in it is a break, and thus the hafiz al-Bayhaqi reported it by his route without adding.
Ibn Ishaq said: I was told by Salman the Persian that he said: I struck in a part of the Trench and a rock proved hard upon me, and the Messenger of Allah was near me; and when he saw me striking and saw the hardness of the place upon me he descended and took the pick from my hand and struck with it a blow beneath which a flash flashed, then struck with it another blow beneath which flashed another flash; then struck with it the third and flashed another flash. I said: may my father and mother be your ransom, O Messenger of Allah, what is this I saw flashing beneath the pick while you struck? He said: ’have you seen that, O Salman?’ He said: I said: yes. He said: ’as for the first, Allah opened by it Yemen; and as for the second, Allah opened by it Syria and the Maghrib; and as for the third, Allah opened by it the East.’ Al-Bayhaqi said: what Ibn Ishaq mentioned, Musa ibn Uqba mentioned in his campaigns, and Abu l-Aswad mentioned it, from Urwa. Then al-Bayhaqi reported, through Muhammad ibn Yunus al-Kudaimi: and in his hadith there is examination: but Ibn Jarir reported it in his History from Muhammad ibn Bashshar Bondar, both from Muhammad ibn Khalid ibn Athma, from Kathir ibn Abdallah ibn Amr ibn Awf al-Muzani, from his father, from his grandfather, who mentions a hadith in which the Messenger of Allah marked the Trench, for every ten men forty cubits. The Muhajirun and the Ansar disputed over Salman, and the Messenger of Allah said: ’Salman is of us, the people of the House.’ Amr ibn Awf said:
I was I and Salman and Hudhayfa and an-Nu’man ibn Muqarrin and six of the Ansar in forty cubits, and we dug until we reached the depth and there appeared to us a smooth white rock which broke our iron and was hard upon us. Salman went to the Messenger of Allah while he was in a Turkish qubba and informed him of it, and he came and took the pick from Salman and struck the rock a blow splitting it, and a flash flashed from it lighting what is between the two Harras of Medina until it was as a lamp in the middle of a dark night; and the Messenger of Allah magnified with a takbir of conquest and the Muslims magnified; then he struck it the second and it was likewise, then the third and likewise. Salman and the Muslims mentioned that to the Messenger of Allah and asked him of that light, and he said: ’there was lighted for me from the first the palaces of al-Hira and the cities of Khusrau, like the fangs of dogs, and Gabriel informed me my community will triumph over it; and from the second the red palaces of the land of the Romans flashed like the fangs of dogs, and Gabriel informed me my community will triumph over it; and from the third the palaces of Sana’a flashed like the fangs of dogs, and Gabriel informed me my community will triumph over it; so receive glad tidings.’ The Muslims received glad tidings and said: praise to Allah, a true promise. He said: when the Confederates appeared the believers said: this is what Allah and His Messenger promised us, and Allah and His Messenger spoke truly, and it added to them only faith and submission; and the hypocrites said:
he informs you he sees from Yathrib the palaces of al-Hira and the cities of Khusrau, and that they will be opened for you, while you dig the Trench unable to come out! So there descended upon them: and when the hypocrites said, and those in whose hearts is disease: what Allah and His Messenger promised us is but deception; and this hadith is strange. The hafiz Abu l-Qasim at-Tabarani said: Harun ibn Mallul narrated to us: Abu Abd ar-Rahman narrated to us: Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ziyad narrated to us, from Abdallah ibn Yazid, from Abdallah ibn Amr, who said: when the Messenger of Allah ordered the Trench and dug around Medina they said: O Messenger of Allah, we found a rock we cannot dig; and the Prophet rose and we rose with him, and when he came to it he took the pick and struck with it a blow and magnified, and I heard a crash the like of which I had never heard, and he said: ’Persia has been opened’; then he struck another and magnified, and I heard a crash the like of which I had never heard, and he said: ’Rome has been opened’; then he struck another and magnified, and I heard a crash the like of which I had never heard, and he said: ’Allah has brought Himyar as aid and support’; and this too is strange by this route, and Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ziyad ibn An’um al-Afriqi is weak in it; and Allah knows best. At-Tabarani also said: Abdallah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal narrated to us: Sa’id ibn Muhammad al-Jarmi related to me: Abu Tumayla related to me: Nu’aym ibn Sa’id al-Abdi informed me that Ikrima related from Ibn Abbas:
the Messenger of Allah dug the Trench and his companions had tied stones upon their bellies from hunger; and when the Messenger of Allah saw that he said: ’have you indicated to me a man who would feed us a bite?’ A man said: yes. He said: ’then advance and point him to us’. They went to the man’s house and there he was in the Trench working his share of it, and his wife sent word: come, for the Messenger of Allah has come to us. The man came running and said: may my father and mother be your ransom: and he had a goat with its kid, and he leapt to her, and the Prophet said: ’the kid is behind her’. So he slaughtered the kid, and the woman set to some flour she had and kneaded and baked, and the pot swelled, and she brought her bowl near to the Messenger of Allah and his companions, and the Messenger of Allah placed his finger in it and said: ’in the name of Allah; O Allah, bless it; eat’. They ate of it until they departed, having eaten only a third of it, and two thirds of it remained; so he dismissed those ten who were with him: go and send me your numbers; and they went, and those ten came and ate of it until they were full; then he rose and prayed for the mistress of the house and blessed upon her and upon the people of her house; then they walked to the Trench and he said: ’go with me to Salman’: and there was a rock before him grown weak: and the Messenger of Allah said: ’leave me to be the first to strike it’, and said: ’in the name of Allah’, and struck it, and a third of it fell, and he said: ’Allah is greatest:
the palaces of Rome and the Lord of the Kaaba’; then he struck another and a part fell, and he said: ’Allah is greatest: the palaces of Persia and the Lord of the Kaaba’: and the hypocrites said: we dig for our own persons and he promises us the palaces of Persia and Rome! Then the hafiz al-Bayhaqi said: Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abdan informed us: Ahmad ibn Ubayd as-Saffar informed us: Muhammad ibn Ghalib ibn Harb narrated to us: Hawdha narrated to us: Awf narrated to us, from Maymoun ibn Ustad az-Zuhri: al-Bara ibn Azib al-Ansari related to me: when the Messenger of Allah commanded us to dig the Trench there appeared to us in part of the Trench a great, hard rock which the picks did not take, and they complained of that to the Messenger of Allah; and when he saw it he took the pick and said: ’in the name of Allah’, and struck a blow breaking its third, and said: ’Allah is greatest: I have been given the keys of Syria, and by Allah I see its red palaces if Allah wills’; then he struck the second, cutting another third, and said: ’Allah is greatest: I have been given the keys of Persia, and by Allah I see the white palace of al-Mada’in’; then he struck the third and said: ’in the name of Allah’, cutting the remainder of the stone, and said: ’Allah is greatest: I have been given the keys of Yemen, and by Allah I see the gates of Sana’a from my place at this hour’. This hadith is strange too: Maymoun ibn Ustad alone reports it, and he is Basran, reporting from al-Bara and Abdallah ibn Amr; from him Humayd at-Tawil and al-Jariri and Awf al-A’rabi; Abu Hatim said,
from Ishaq ibn Mansur, from Ibn Ma’in: he was reliable; and Ali ibn al-Madini said: Yahya ibn Sa’id al-Qattan did not report from him. An-Nasa’i said: Issa ibn Yunus narrated to us: Damra narrated to us, from Abu Zur’a as-Saybani, from Abu Sukayna: a man of the freed: from a man of the companions of the Prophet, who said: when the Messenger of Allah ordered the digging of the Trench there appeared to them a rock barring them from the digging; and the Prophet rose and took the pick and placed his cloak at the side of the Trench and said: ’and the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice; none can change His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing’ [al-An’am: 115]; and a third of the stone crumbled, and Salman the Persian standing looking; and with the blow of the Messenger of Allah a flash flashed; then he struck the second and said: and the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice; none can change His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing; and the other third crumbled, and a flash flashed which Salman saw; then he struck the third and said: and the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice; none can change His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing; and the remaining third crumbled, and the Messenger of Allah went out and took his cloak and sat, and Salman said: O Messenger of Allah, I saw you when you struck, not striking but a flash came with it. The Messenger of Allah said: ’O Salman, did you see that?’ He said: yes, by Him who sent you with the truth,
O Messenger of Allah. He said: ’when I struck the first blow there were raised for me the cities of Khusrau and what surrounds it, and many cities, until I saw them with my eye’; and those of his companions present said: O Messenger of Allah, pray to Allah to open it for us and let us take their children as spoils, and demolish their land with our hands; and he prayed that; then said: ’then I struck the second blow, and there were raised for me the cities of Caesar and what surrounds it, until I saw them with my eye’. They said: O Messenger of Allah, pray to Allah to open it for us and let us take their children as spoils and demolish their land with our hands; and he prayed; then said: ’then I struck the third blow, and there were raised for me the cities of Abyssinia and the villages around it, until I saw them with my eye’; then the Messenger of Allah said: ’leave the Abyssinians so long as they leave you, and leave the Turks so long as they leave you’. Thus an-Nasa’i reports it at length, while Abu Dawud reported only: ’leave the Abyssinians so long as they leave you, and leave the Turks so long as they leave you’, through Issa ibn Muhammad ar-Ramli, from Damra ibn Rabi’a, from Abu Zur’a Yahya ibn Abi Amr as-Saybani, likewise. Ibn Ishaq said: one whom I do not suspect related to me, from Abu Hurayra, that he used to say, when these lands were opened in the time of Umar and the time of Uthman and after him: search what seems good to you; and by Him in whose hand is the soul of Abu Hurayra,
you shall never open a city until the Day of Resurrection but Allah had given Muhammad its keys before that. This too is broken by this route, though connected by another; and to Allah belongs praise. The Imam Ahmad said: Hajjaj narrated to us: Layth narrated to me: Uqayl ibn Khalid related to me, from Ibn Shihab, from Sa’id ibn al-Musayyab, that Abu Hurayra said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: I was sent with comprehensive words and aided with dread, and while I slept I was brought the keys of the treasuries of the earth and they were placed in my hand. Al-Bukhari reported it alone, from Yahya ibn Bukayr and Sa’d ibn Ufayr, both from Layth, likewise, and at his side Abu Hurayra said: the Messenger of Allah has gone and you are plucking them. The Imam Ahmad said: Yazid narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Amr narrated to us, from Abu Salama, from Abu Hurayra: the Messenger of Allah said: I was aided with dread, given comprehensive words, the earth made for me a mosque and a purifier, and while I slept I was brought the keys of the treasuries of the earth and they were unrolled in my hand: a good, strong chain upon the condition of Muslim, and they did not report it. In the two Sahihs: when Caesar perishes there will be no Caesar after him, and when Khusrau perishes there will be no Khusrau after him, and by Him in whose hand is my soul you shall surely spend their treasures in the path of Allah; and in the sound hadith: Allah has bent for me the earth, its easts and its wests, and the kingdom of my community will reach what was bent for me of it.
This is the chapter of the marriage of the Prophet with Umm Habiba. Al-Bayhaqi mentions, after the encounter of the Trench, through al-Kalbi, from Abu Salih, from Ibn Abbas, at the word of the Most High ’perhaps Allah will bring about love between you and those of them who were hostile to you’ [al-Mumtahina: 7]: he said: it is the marriage of the Prophet with Umm Habiba bint Abi Sufyan, who became Mother of the Believers, and Mu’awiya became the maternal uncle of the Believers. Then al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Abdallah the hafiz informed us: Ali ibn Isa narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Najda narrated to us: Yahya ibn Abd al-Hamid informed us: Ibn al-Mubarak informed us, from Ma’mar, from az-Zuhri, from Urwa, from Umm Habiba, that she was with Ubaydallah ibn Jahch, who had emigrated to the Negus and died, and that the Messenger of Allah married Umm Habiba while she was in the land of Abyssinia, and the Negus married her to him, her dower being four thousand dirhams,
and he sent her with Shurahbil ibn Hassana and equipped her from his own; and the Messenger of Allah sent her nothing. He said: the dowers of the wives of the Prophet were four hundred. I say: the sound account is that the dowers of the wives of the Prophet were twelve uqiyya and a nash, the uqiyya forty dirhams and the nash a half, equaling five hundred dirhams. Then al-Bayhaqi reported, through Ibn Lahi’a, from Abu l-Aswad, from Urwa, that Ubaydallah ibn Jahch died in Abyssinia a Christian, and the Messenger of Allah succeeded him upon his wife Umm Habiba, Uthman ibn Affan marrying her to him. I say: as for the apostasy of Ubaydallah ibn Jahch, its exposition has preceded: he emigrated with the Muslims to the land of Abyssinia, the devil led him astray and embellished for him the religion of the Christians, and he went to it until he died upon it: may Allah curse him; and he would meet the Muslims and say to them:
we have seen clearly and you have seen askew; and its exposition has preceded in the emigration to Abyssinia. As for Urwa’s word that Uthman married her to him, it is strange, for Uthman had already returned to Mecca before that, then emigrated to Medina with his wife Ruqayya, as preceded; and Allah knows best. The sound is what Yunus mentioned, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: it has reached me that the one who took charge of her marriage was her cousin Khalid ibn Sa’id ibn al-As. I say: and the proxy of the Messenger of Allah in accepting the contract was Ashama the Negus, king of Abyssinia, as Yunus says, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn related to me: the Messenger of Allah sent Amr ibn Umayya ad-Damri to the Negus, who married Umm Habiba bint Abi Sufyan to him, citing of him four hundred dinars. Az-Zubayr ibn Bakkar said: Muhammad ibn Hasan related to me, from his father, from Abdallah ibn Amr ibn Zuhayr, from Isma’il ibn Amr, that Umm Habiba bint Abi Sufyan said:
while I was in the land of Abyssinia I felt only that the servant of the Negus called Abraha, who kept his garments and oil, came, asking leave of me; I permitted her and she said: the king says to you: the Messenger of Allah has written me that I marry you to him. I said: may Allah give you good tidings. And she said: the king says to you: appoint whomever marries you. She said: I sent for Khalid ibn Sa’id ibn al-As and appointed him, and gave Abraha two silver bracelets and two silver anklets I wore and silver rings on every toe of my feet, rejoicing in what she had given me glad tidings of. When evening came the Negus ordered Ja’far ibn Abi Talib and the Muslims there to attend, and the Negus preached and said: praise to Allah, the King, the Holy, the Peace, the Faithful, the Dominant, the Mighty, the Compeller; and I testify there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger, and that he is he whom Jesus son of Mary announced.
As for what follows: the Messenger of Allah wrote me that I marry Umm Habiba bint Abi Sufyan to him, and I answered what the Messenger of Allah invited to, and I dowered her four hundred dinars. Then he poured the dinars before the people, and Khalid ibn Sa’id spoke and said: praise to Allah; I praise Him and ask His forgiveness, and I testify there is no deity but Allah and I testify Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger; He sent him with guidance and the religion of truth to make it prevail over all religion though the idolaters hate it. As for what follows: I answered what the Messenger of Allah invited to and married Umm Habiba bint Abi Sufyan to him; may Allah bless for the Messenger of Allah. And the Negus gave the dinars to Khalid ibn Sa’id, who received them; then they wished to rise and he said: sit, for of the sunna of the prophets when they marry is that food be eaten upon the marriage; and he called for food and they ate and dispersed.
I say: perhaps Amr ibn al-As, when he saw Amr ibn Umayya coming out from the Negus after the Trench, was in the affair of Umm Habiba; and Allah knows best. But the hafiz al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Abdallah Ibn Mandah mentioned that his marriage to Umm Habiba was in the year six and his marriage to Umm Salama in the year four. I say: thus said Khalifa and Abu Ubayda Ma’mar ibn al-Muthanna and Ibn al-Barqi: the marriage of Umm Habiba was in the year six; and some said the year seven. Al-Bayhaqi said: Ibn Ishaq held he married Umm Habiba before Umm Salama; and al-Bayhaqi said: that is more apparent. I say: his marriage to Umm Salama has preceded at the end of the year four; as for Umm Habiba, it is possible it was before that and possible after, and its being after the Trench is more apparent, for what preceded of the mention of Amr ibn al-As seeing Amr ibn Umayya at the Negus: he is in her affair; and Allah knows best. The hafiz Ibn al-Athir related in al-Ghaba,
from Qatada, that Umm Habiba, when she emigrated from Abyssinia to Medina, the Messenger of Allah asked her hand and married her; and he relates from some that he married her after his father’s Islam after the conquest, this speaker arguing by what Muslim reported, through Ikrima ibn Ammar al-Yamami, from Abu Zumayl Simak ibn al-Walid, from Ibn Abbas, that Abu Sufyan said: O Messenger of Allah, three things give me. He said: ’yes’. He said: appoint me to fight the disbelievers as I used to fight the Muslims. He said: ’yes’. He said: and Mu’awiya your scribe. He said: ’yes’. He said: and I have the fairest of the Arabs and prettiest, Umm Habiba bint Abi Sufyan; marry her to me: the hadith entire. Ibn al-Athir said: this hadith is of what Muslim was blamed for, for Abu Sufyan, when he came to renew the contract before the conquest, entered upon his daughter Umm Habiba, and she folded from him the bed of the Prophet, and he said:
by Allah I know not whether you have turned from me to him or from him to me. She said: rather this is the bed of the Messenger of Allah and you are a polytheist man. He said: by Allah, an evil has befallen you after me, O daughter. Ibn Hazm said: Ikrima ibn Ammar forged this hadith, and this word of his is not followed. Others said: he wished to renew the contract for the censure upon him without his permission; and some said: because he believed the marriage of his daughter dissolved by his Islam; and all this is weak, and the fairest in this is that he wished to marry to the Prophet his other daughter Azza, for what he saw of honor in that, and relied upon her sister Umm Habiba, as in the two Sahihs, and the reporter merely erred in naming Umm Habiba; and we have devoted to that a separate chapter. Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam said: Umm Habiba died in the year forty-four; and Abu Bakr ibn Abi Khaythama said: she died a year before Mu’awiya, whose death was in Rajab of the year sixty.
His marriage to Zaynab bint Jahch ibn Ri’ab ibn Ya’mar ibn Sabira ibn Murra ibn Kabir ibn Ghanm ibn Doudan ibn Asad ibn Khuzayma al-Asadiyya, Mother of the Believers, and she is the daughter of Umayma bint Abd al-Muttalib, the aunt of the Messenger of Allah, and she was before him with his freedman Zayd ibn Haritha. Qatada and al-Waqidi, and some of the people of Medina, said: he married her in the year five, some adding in Dhu l-Qi’da. The hafiz al-Bayhaqi said: he married her after the Banu Qurayza; and Khalifa ibn Khayyat and Abu Ubayda Ma’mar ibn al-Muthanna and Ibn Mandah said: he married her in the year three; and the first is more famous, and it is what Ibn Jarir and more than one of the people of History followed. More than one of the exegetes and jurists and people of History mentioned in the cause of his marriage to her a hadith which Ahmad ibn Hanbal mentioned in his Musnad; we left off citing it deliberately, lest some who do not understand place it outside its place. Allah the Most High said in His noble Book: and when you said to him whom Allah had favored and you favored: keep your wife and fear Allah, and you hid within yourself what Allah would reveal, and you feared the people while Allah has more right that you fear Him; so when Zayd had finished with her, We married her to you, that there be not upon the believers any discomfort concerning the wives of their adopted sons when they have finished with them; and the command of Allah is done: no discomfort upon the Prophet in what Allah prescribed for him; the rule of Allah among those before,
and the command of Allah is a decree determined [al-Ahzab: 37-38]. We have discussed that in the Tafsir with what suffices; the one whom Allah favored here is Zayd ibn Haritha, freedman of the Messenger of Allah: Allah favored him with Islam and the Messenger of Allah favored him with manumission, and married him to the daughter of his aunt Zaynab bint Jahch. Muqatil ibn Hayyan said: her dower was sixty dinars and sixty dirhams, and a veil, and a garment, and a coat of mail, and fifty mudds of food, and ten ammads of dates; and she stayed with him about a year or more, then divergence fell between the two, and her husband came complaining of her to the Messenger of Allah, who kept saying to him: fear Allah and keep your wife. Allah said: and you hid within yourself what Allah would reveal.
Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-Abidin and as-Suddi said: Allah had made him know she would be of his wives, and that is what was within him, peace be upon him. Many of the ancients spoke here of strange reports, some of which merit examination; we left them deliberately. Allah the Most High said: so when Zayd had finished with her, We married her to you; that is, Zayd divorced her, and when her period ended the Messenger of Allah sent to her asking her for himself, then married her, and the one who married her of him was the Lord of the worlds, as is established in the Sahih of al-Bukhari, from Anas ibn Malik, that Zaynab bint Jahch used to boast over the wives of the Prophet, saying: your families married you, and Allah married me from above seven heavens; and in a version through Issa ibn Tahman, from Anas:
Zaynab used to boast over the women of the Prophet, saying: Allah married me from heaven. In her descended the verse of the veil: O you who believe, enter not the houses of the Prophet unless leave be given you for a meal [al-Ahzab: 53]. Al-Bayhaqi reported, from the hadith of Hammad ibn Zayd, from Thabit, from Anas, who said: Zayd came complaining of Zaynab, and the Messenger of Allah kept saying: fear Allah and keep your wife. Anas said: had the Messenger of Allah concealed anything he would have concealed this; and she used to boast over the wives of the Prophet, saying: your families married you, and Allah married me from above seven heavens. Then he said: al-Bukhari reported it, from Ahmad, from Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Muqaddami, from Hammad ibn Zayd, in abridged form. Then al-Bayhaqi reported, through Affan, from Hammad ibn Zayd, from Thabit, from Anas: Zayd came complaining to the Messenger of Allah of Zaynab bint Jahch, and the Prophet said: ’keep your wife’; and there descended: and you hid within yourself what Allah would reveal; then he said: al-Bukhari reported it, from Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahim, from Mu’alla ibn Mansur, from Hammad, in abridged form. Ibn Jarir said: Ibn Humayd narrated to us: Jarir narrated to us, from Mughira, from ash-Sha’bi: Zaynab used to say to the Prophet: I point you to three things none of your wives points you: that my grandfather and your grandfather are one: meaning Abd al-Muttalib, for he is the father of the Prophet’s father and the father of her mother Umayma bint Abd al-Muttalib: and that Allah married me to you from heaven,
and that the emissary is Gabriel, peace be upon him. The Imam Ahmad said: Hashim, meaning ibn al-Qasim Abu an-Nadr, narrated to us: Sulayman ibn al-Mughira narrated to us, from Thabit, from Anas, who said: when the period of Zaynab ended the Prophet said to Zayd: ’go and mention her to me’; and he went until he came to her while she kneaded her dough. He said: when I saw her she became great in my breast, so that I could not look at her that the Messenger of Allah had mentioned her, and I turned my back to her, turning on my heels, and said: O Zaynab, receive glad tidings; the Messenger of Allah sent me to mention you. She said: I shall do nothing until my Lord commands me. Then she went to her mosque, and the Quran descended, and the Messenger of Allah came and entered upon her without leave.
Anas said: I saw, when the Messenger of Allah entered upon her, he fed us upon her bread and meat; the people went out, and men remained conversing in the house after the food; and the Messenger of Allah went out and I followed him, and he began making his rounds of the cells of his wives greeting them, and they said: O Messenger of Allah, how did you find your family? I know not whether I told him the people had gone out or was told. He said: he went until he entered the house, and I went to enter with him, and he cast the screen between me and him, and the veil descended, and the people were exhorted with what they were exhorted: enter not the houses of the Prophet unless leave be given you, the verse. Muslim and an-Nasa’i reported it likewise, by routes, from Sulayman ibn al-Mughira.